Topic: Ron Walker

[Jamie Carruthers]

Here are personal notes written by Ron Walker (Muscleman, 1953):


My story starts 'in August, 1929, when 1 was employed 1."'.by a local
carting agent'as"á horse driver and from , 5 a.m. to sometimes 9 p.m.
each day, lead coal to the Gas works with 2 horses. This involved a
large amount of shovel work, from which I developed my first original
strength in the back and arms.

I was introduced to the Carr Gate P.e. Club this month, my lifts
which are of interést to note, being my first test as a Weight-
Lifter, were: Press 140, Snatch 150, and Jerk 180.
As I said I had developed strength, but of course no styles yet, but
I was very pleased with my efforts and these gave me the desire to do
more. In 1930 at Walthamstow I won .the 12st: British Title with
lifts of 140_, snatch, 197! press behind neck, 241} jerk, 171} h
jerk. In the course of the Championships I broke the British Record
00,
t4_ press behind neck with 197_ lbs., which was a natural,' lift to
me and almost every week after- [ co record again, which I did
In 1931 I left the Carr Wakefield, I gathered some very good lads who
trained along with me about this time…
I won the Northern Countys H weighi and Yorkshire Titles and in tha!
year I defeated .Harold Wood, then Heavyweight Champion of Great
Britain. 1 broke all four lifts in the Champiohships to become
British Heavy-weight ,Amateur Champion, which title [ continued to
hold until 1 retired in 1938, the lifts being One Hand Snatch 185,
Clean and Jerk 291, Jerk behind, Neck 291, Continental Jerk 315 lbs.
The Olympic lifts were my biggest interestaróund Ibis time, my lifts
on that set being 230 Press, 240 Snatch and 320 Jerk. With these
lifts I knew I could defeat Harold Wood or anyone else in England.,
But by Ibis time 1 had decided that the Continental lifters were my'
goal, those were the men to defeat, so [ set myself to catch up with
their totals which were about 100 to 150 lbs. Better than mine at
that time, still that didn't worry me very' much for I never had a
fear of weights at any time.

**I trained hard for months before the Olympics and increased my
training nights from 3 times a week to 6 times, later this became 7
times and twice a day as well, but of course not all this training
was with heavy weights, during the day used light weights; about 3/5
of my best and in the evening heavier. On the lifts was particularly
training on, I broke many Records at Championship appearances because
my strength was increasing' so quickly. At this time I didn't
specialise on any set lifts for very long.

Dumbbell lifting came very much into my training, for these lifts
were the foundation of my strength, I could perform a good poundage
on any of the 42 lifts then recognised B.A.W.L.A.

I worked out my own training programmes and here I must stress this
point, I have never received training or any other form of
instruction from any one but myself. Right from my first introduction
in 1929, I trained myself and thousands of others on my own' methods,
because unlike most lifters, I trained as the mood took me. In my
early days some lifts puzzled me, for instance with THE ONE HAND
JERK, the Standard method of jerking was with the ordinary split
style, I could use this style, but as I did not, get the results I
required, I pondered over a new style to, help me, and at last whilst
in bed one evening around 12 'p.m. and 1 a.m I struck the idea of
using the Jerk and falling away as in the Bent Press position, the
more I thought of it, the better I liked it. I was so keen to try it
that I got up there and then and went to the gym to try it out. The
gym by the way was only in the next street. Light weights proved to
be successful, and being eager to prove it, still further increased
the barbell up to 200 lbs. If I could do this it would definitely
prove the correct style, and this would make me the first English man
to Jerk 200 lbs. with one hand, which I did, later increasing the
record in stages up to the present record of 235! lbs. I often tried
the World's Record at over250 Ibs, but missed this on many occasions,
my greatest asset in this respect being my ability to clean to the
shoulder with my right hand over 300 lbs., 325 lbs. being my best.

The one Hand. Snatch also came in for a. big share training. Lifts
like' these develop balance and control apart from the strength
gained by their practise. In the snatch .I used my now famous full
squat style with both hands.
To learn this style correetly, I trained for weeks with no weights
whatever, an ordinary broom handle being my bar to perfect the style.
When this was as I desired I started with light weights, the record
at this time being about 156 lbs., but it was not very long before I
had the RIGHT HAND SNATCH at 166lbs., later increasing to where it
stands to-day at 200 . ..Although I have attempted 225lbs for the
WORLD'S RECORD it stands at 222 Ibs by Rigulou of France, but I have
done over 230lbs in training.

My greatest reéord breaking years were in 1932 to 1936, something like
40 or 50 records were broken.

[Shaun Le Conte]

Hello Jamie, you don't have to press enter at the end of a line. The text will automatically wrap around and the formatting will look better as a result.